


Soft Place To Fall

by RedLeaderfic



Category: National Wrestling Alliance
Genre: Bullet Club Drama, Kayfabe Compliant, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-01
Updated: 2019-01-01
Packaged: 2019-09-21 19:42:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17049401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedLeaderfic/pseuds/RedLeaderfic
Summary: Jason isn't sure if this is an interlude or a beginning.He is very sure which of those he's hoping for, however.





	Soft Place To Fall

**Author's Note:**

  * For [beedekka](https://archiveofourown.org/users/beedekka/gifts).



> Set around their Wrestlecade tag match. Happy Yuletide!

Once a month Jason gave himself permission to break his schedule and sleep in – no meditation, no work outs, nothing but at least twelve hours of sweet uninterrupted sleep. With the trips to Japan getting more frequent and frankly on the verge of unmanageable – a welcome problem, definitely, but the jet lag was still something he was woefully bad at dealing with as of yet – that one precious day a month had become a much looked forward to indulgence, something Jason didn’t allow himself many of.

So of course that would be the day of all days Chase Owens would choose to call him at some ungodly hour of the night.

Although Jason supposed it wasn’t an ungodly hour for him. Chase never had gotten the hang of adjusting for time zones. “What? What is it?”

“Hey.” Chase was keeping his voice low, which broke through some of Jason’s bleary anger. “You’re still booked for Wrestlecade, right?”

“What? Yeah, I am. Don’t know the match yet, but I’ll be there.”

“You think you can put in a word for me? My schedule freed up.”

If Jason hadn’t been all the way awake, that certainly would have done it. Jason looked at the calendar to make sure he hadn’t mixed up the dates but no, there it was , smack in the middle of a stretch of weeks Chase Owens never had his schedule free for, not for the last few years, anyway. “…Yeah. Yeah, I could do that,” Jason said, all but biting his tongue to ask what was going on. 

“Cool,” Chase said, sounding audibly relieved. “Never done Wrestlecade before, I was hoping the chance would come up.”

Jason was fairly certain that was an enormous lie but didn’t think this was the time to call Chase on it. “Can’t promise what the match will be.”

“Don’t matter,” Chase said, and to his credit Jason knew that was true. Chase was as vain as any of them could be about coveting the main event slot but he loved working, stick him a battle royal in the curtain match and he would hype himself up for it just as much. “Thanks,” Chase said after a moment of hesitation, and Jason knew he well enough to be able to picture him running his tongue over his lips as the awkwardness of having to ask Jason for a favor hit him. 

“The promoter told us all to keep our ears open, you know how these shows are,” Jason said, not sure why he was letting Chase off the hook. A couple of years ago he would have been reveling in all this. 

He could _hear_ Chase’s relieved smile and Jason felt his stomach twist up. “Don’t I know it.” Chase hesitated again. Jason had the feeling he’d been about to thank him again and had stopped himself. “Guess I’ll see you there. Been a bit.”

“Since we met up at the Tokyo Dome.”

“Yeah,” Chase said, a wistfulness there that got to Jason because Chase really was not the wistful type.

“I’ll call you when I get word what the match is,” Jason said, surprising himself. He hated how Chase could always get him off balance, and he wasn’t even trying this time. 

“I’d appreciate that,” Chase said, sounding surprised himself. Jason heard him take another short breath, like he’d been about to say something but had again thought better of it. The awkward silence stretched on as the two of them sat there not talking but not hanging up either, until Jason felt like he was about to crawl out of his skin. He bit his lip to keep from blurting out _What the hell is going **on** over there?_; he and Chase weren’t blood feuding the way they had been a few years ago but Jason still didn’t think they were the kind of friends who could talk like that. Unless they were? Unless that’s what this was and they’d danced over that line without Jason even realizing it, hell if he knew what this was anymore.

Jason heard something in the background, someone talking in Japanese that Jason didn’t catch, and Chase answered back in Japanese so clumsy that Jason laughed. “I gotta go,” Chase said.

“Go live that big shot life.”

Chase laughed at that before hanging up, and Jason wondered if he really had heard some bitterness buried deep in there or if he was just looking for some. He lay back on the bed and stared at the ceiling, trying to piece together what in the hell those last few minutes even were. Jason was multitudes happier now that he had been a few years ago, there was no mistaking that, but sometimes he missed the purity of the time when the only emotion Chase Owens’ name brought up was poisonous hate. Maybe it had been killing him slowly but it had been a simpler time.

Jason sent off a text to the promoter before he could get twisted up any more and lied to himself that he could go back to sleep. He smiled to himself when his text alert chimed again inside of five minutes; wrestling promoters never slept, they just existed on Red Bull and chips until the show was over. _Fuck yeah I can use him._

Jason thought that would be it for the night though, so he was surprised when another text came through almost as soon as he’d put the phone down. _Hows about the two of you at showcase vs heatseekers? Been sweating who to put for those titles_

Jason’s hand shook for a second. Teaming with Chase had never even occurred to him. Teaming with him for a _title_. _Sounds good_ Jason texted back before he could even think about it, Jason just stared at his phone after hitting send like his hands had become briefly possessed. Oh, if only he could believe they had been.

Jason lay back again, his heart pounding oddly in his chest. 

***

When Jason called the next day – being careful to account for the time difference, unlike certain _Chase Owens_ – he hoped it wasn’t as obvious that he’d been waiting all day to hear Chase’s reaction. “That’s different,” Chase said slowly when Jason floated the idea of the match.

“If you’d rather a singles….”

“No! No, this is good, I like this,” Chase said, and Jason could all but see that glint in his eye. “We never done this before, and you know I’m always up for beating on Sigmon.”

“Do not stab me in the back, Chowens.”

Chase laughed. “Gonna be hard to break the habit of punching you, gotta admit.”

The conversation went into a lull, like it had the night before. “Is everything okay over there?” There was only so long he could keep that question from coming.

Chase let out a short, sharp breath. “That idiot Ospreay getting himself hurt shuffled everything all around. “

Jason let a few more quiet seconds tick by. “Is everything okay over there?” he said again, softer this time.

Chase didn’t answer for a few very long seconds. “I’m lookin’ forward to all this. I really am.”

Jason and Chase exchanged a few more meaningless sentences before figuring out how to end the call. Jason sat on the edge of his bed and stared at his phone. “Hell,” he said to himself. “Guess I am too.”

***

Jason picked Chase up from the airport and drove directly to the hotel without saying more than two words to him, not that Chase noticed, his perpetual jet lag making sure of that. It was all right, Jason wasn’t in the mood for much talking; every muscle in his body felt tight, like his skin was about to split off. He’d felt like this the night he’d shaved off his hair, or rather this was the restlessness that had led him to do it. He’d felt like this only a handful of times in his life, always when a great change was before him: getting that first call from DDT. The first time he’d stood in the main event. Seeing himself in those Axxess tournament brackets last year, knowing overnight thousands of more people would know his name.

The first time he’d stood in a ring opposite Chase Owens. 

It was a sense of the universe whispering to him that he was never sure whether to celebrate or to dread.

He’d already checked in and was too keyed up to wait for Chase to get his stuff out of the car, the second he could he grabbed Chase by the back of the neck and steered him up to the room, kissing him up against the door as soon as he had it closed. Maybe it would only replace the buzzing in his head with a different kind of buzzing but it was the only solution Jason had ever figured out. 

Chase laughed with delight when Jason finally let him up for air. “What was that for?”

“We’re teaming, right? We have to work on our chemistry.” It was a terrible line but it was the kind of terrible he knew Chase would appreciate.

“We don’t need any work there,” Chase said, letting Jason tug his shirt off and start undoing his belt. “Pretty sure we always had that down.” He stroked the back of his fingers along Jason’s jawline. “Glad you’re growing some of this back. You were looking like a inked up egg for a while there.”

He mock pushed Chase backward, forcing him to catch himself on the bed. “Ow, ow, easy with me, I’m banged up.”

Jason trailed his hands down some welts on Chase’s ribs. “This from the Janella show?”

Chase laughed again. “That show was a wild night.”

“Tell me about it later.” Chase seemed more than willing to go along with that suggestion, sitting on the edge of the bed to make it easier for Jason to cradle his face before kissing him. Chase looked exhausted, he always did, more than jet lag and long flights should make him look. People were always so surprised when they found out that Chase wasn’t even thirty, assuming he and Jason were of an age, but Jason knew that had never been the case before he flew across the world to wear a skull on his chest.

Chase caught him staring and Jason could tell knew exactly what he’d been thinking. Don’t. Don’t ask. 

Jason nodded, kissing Chase lightly before easing him back onto the bed. For once he wasn’t here to pick a fight. 

***

Jason wasn’t surprised to wake up in the middle of the night to find Chase wide awake and still sharing the bed despite the empty second one only feet away. Chase glanced down at him, the lamp they hadn’t bothered to turn off bringing out the blue in his eyes. “Sorry.”

“Used to it. You never sleep through the night right before a match.” He brushed Chase’s hair back out of his face. It was startling sometimes, how different Chase would let himself look when it was only the two of them in the dead of night. Jason wondered sometimes if he was even aware of it.

“Yeah, I know. Wish I could, it's a huge pain in the ass.” Chase sighed, leaning into Jason’s touch. “I needed this bad,” he said, and Jason kept quiet. “Not just getting booked I mean, I….” Chase cut himself off, maybe realizing that was too much. “I love Japan, I really do I love it so much. But it’s good to get to come home.”

Jason nodded, kissing his temple. “Heartwarming, but get some sleep already. I don’t want those two to roll over us. Not here to let you embarrass me.”

Chase laughed and kissed him, rolling Jason over to his back, and okay, if they weren’t going to sleep this was perfectly okay too.

***

It was hard to do his usual centering before the match with Chase sitting there on the floor next to him, but Jason probably should have anticipated that. He finally gave up and opened his eyes, people watching the rest of the card walking by. They were in a nook out of the way but people seemed to find ways to pass by them anyway, and Jason couldn’t help catching snatches of conversation: “ _…Elite or not?” “not gonna reup him, you’ll see” “NXT in a year, you know the old man’ll get him in…._ ”

Jason glanced at Chase and saw in an instant from his eyes he’d heard too; he caught Jason’s look and waved it away. ‘It’s like twitter’s all walking around in here, huh?”

“Give me the word, Chase.”

“Maybe after we win.”

Jason nodded. He took a glance at Chase’s gear, the crystalline skull staring a hole through him. “I got a tip about a gear maker I’m going to look at, she’s supposed to be good. I’ll pass it along if you want.”

“Hell, I just got this gear,” Chase said, not acknowledging what Jason had been dancing around. Jason heard the opening bell and shivered when the crowd roar echoed through the thin walls. He always loved this part of the night. “Don’t worry about the match,” Chase said, not looking at Jason. “About what you said on the phone. When I sign up for something I see it through.” _Then_ he looked at Jason and Jason knew that was it, that was the answer he’d been fishing for. And had expected although he hated it, he hated it so much. 

“Not everyone thinks that way,” he said, surprised at how poor a job he’d done at keeping the anger out of his voice.

Chase was quiet for an entire match. “Doesn’t matter if they don’t. I still do.”

And that was all there was to it. “We should maybe talk some strategy for tonight.”

Chase smirked at that. “Nah.”

***

Jason stood on the top rope and waited for Chase to make his entrance, nerves knotting him up. Maybe making separate entrances that been a bad omen. He hadn’t given it much thought, although he was surprised Chase hadn’t brought it up. Maybe Chase had known Jason wouldn’t come out to his Bullet Club music.

To watch Chase walk down a ramp anyone who didn’t know him would think he wasn’t taking it seriously. It was a stupid assumption to make and one Chase had caught opponents with much more than once. Chase was _overconfident_ , that was for sure, but he enjoyed being underestimated and carefully cultivated that response. Jason glanced down at the Heatseekers and saw that they were already dismissing the two of them, even Sigmon who for damn sure should know better. Chase caught his eye after finishing his roll into the ring, winking at him. Maybe it had worked again.

The match itself went by like a blur. It almost felt like being concussed – try as he might later on he would only be able to remember it in disjointed pieces: Chase shouting “ _C’mon Jason, fight!_ ” to try to will him to the corner. Standing on the ring post and feeling like he was in the sky. Missing that slingshot tope only to have Chase avenge him by hitting one of his own. That perfect, fluid opening sequence of he and Chase tagging in and out without having to look at each other half the time, let alone speak. 

Jason was a little afraid of that match when he let his mind think back to it. It felt the way he’d always imagined heroin might.

Jason knew the result was his fault, his inexperience with tag despite the crash course he’d been on with DDT – the pacing was so different from singles and he didn’t have enough gas left to break up the pin when he’d needed to. He would do better next time. “I’m sorry,” he said to Chase again when they were in the back and the main event was in full swing. 

“Will you quit with that? I ain’t mad. I’m used to it, that happens to me all the time.” Which did the opposite of making Jason feel better, but he knew Chase was trying. In fact, when Jason looked up Chase was sitting there with a huge smile on his face, looking for all the world like they had won those tag titles after all. It was the most genuine smile he’d seen on Chase Owens’ face in quite some time. “That was _fun_.”

Jason nodded, still a little breathless. “Next time we win some gold, though.”

Chase laughed and clapped in on the shoulder. “Let’s get out of here. Dinner’s on me.”

***

And after all the weekend ended the way it always did when Hurricane Chase blew into Jason’s life: Jason waking up alone in their hotel room with a rushed voice mail on his phone of Chase apologizing about the flight he’d had to catch. Jason stared at the ceiling and wondered what in the hell that had all been until he very carefully and deliberately walled it off until he could go back to living his life.

Less than a month later Chase was on his phone again. “Hey,” he said. “Innovate gave me a call to work their end of the year show. You against me, one more time. You in?”

Jason knew without asking that New Japan had let their roster know who would have those last precious Tokyo Done slots in that Gauntlet match and that Chase hadn’t gotten one. It was the same edge to his voice. “I thought we’d announced we were all done with that after the last time.”

“C’mon, Kincaid,” Chase said. “You and me both know we’ll never be done.”

Jason closed his eyes. “Home is always waiting for you, Chowens.”

He heard Chase take a breath. “Gonna drop you on your head again,” he said, recovering.

Jason shook his head, knowing Chase couldn’t see. “We’ll see.” He stared at the phone for a few minutes after Chase hung up. He may not be the tag specialist Chase was, but he could recognize someone reaching out for a tag when he saw one. 

Jason lay back on his bed, his hands laced behind his head and listened to the sound of his own blood pounding in his ears. 2019 was looking like it might be one hell of an interesting year.

He hoped it would be the one he'd been waiting for.


End file.
